Hi all, as a newcomber to SUS I thought I would give a brief review of my 2013 SB 9'5 WP in AST. I hope this is helpful for anyone unsure what to progress to. As background I am 50, 83kg, surf(ed) for 35 years and took up SUS 7 months ago. I would say I have reasonably good surf fitness and manage to get a wave 3-4x a week. I surf a beach break ankle to head height. After a couple of months on a 10'5 WP I wanted to progress with stronger turns and a dedicated wave board.
I am delighted.
**Length - Fits inside the Subaru Forester with front seat dropped back. Handy not to deal with roof racks if the wind gusts up.
**Fin setup- came as a thruster and I have left it so. Can be used as a quad but I have found the board loose enough as a Thruster.
**Width/ Volume - at 155L I came down from 175L and there were no problems with stability. The 32" width is very stable and it comes into its own when there is a bit of chop/ confused water. Despite the width this board turns and gets onto a rail with ease.
**Glide- It for me is probably more technique (or lack thereof) and my concern was loss of advantage by coming down a foot in length and 20Litres from the 10'5WP. My plan is to sit towards the edge of the break and get fuller waves. I did not want to be sitting in the middle of the pack. Again I found I can still hang out wide, get on early and jag a wave just as easy as the 10'5. Main problem with this tactic is to look back later when you are on the wave and find a mal has managed to sneak inside!
**Wave size- have surfed from dribble to 5-6 foot. (When the entire beach is whitewater and no channels I bail to Baysurf). This board will pick up little waves, but it has great acceleration and speed when it gets 3 foot plus. The nose lift/rocker is superb and I have not nosedived over many sessions. The speed can let you get across smaller closed out sections and back onto the face.
**White water- when I first dropped a foot in length I thought I was literally peering over the nose of the board. Straight away it became easier however to attack the whitewater, put a foot back and try and push over. The nose easily pops up and over (and this is something to get used to when for years you have learnt to bury a board nose and duck dive) I now make it about 50% of the time if its not too big, and when you come off the leg pull is not as drastic as the 175L.
**Deck pad/grip - comfortable and firm underfoot
**Kick pad- This is an excellent feature. The board likes to turn with the back foot over the fins combined with paddle force for sharper turns. The feel of the pad gives me 'biofeedback' as to where I am and is really good to force the side of the foot against if trying to pull off a reentry.
In summary this is a great board. I am in no hurry to drop further in size or volume and would recommend for intermediate recreational SUS as a dedicated wave board.I am sure better SUS riders would carve it in 6-10ft surf.
